When
the T.A.R.D.I.S takes over the controls, the Doctor, Donna
and Martha are transported to an underground world that
is gripped by war. A group of Humans are fighting a mysterious
race of fish people called the Hath. As each side continues
to kill each other, they boost their ranks by using their
DNA to create a fully-grown child that is bred for war and
ready to fight as soon as they exit the chamber. As the
Doctor, Donna and Martha are surrounded by the human warriors,
the Time Lord is forced to place his hand in the machine
and a young woman emerges from the chamber. At that moment
the Hath attack and a cave in separates the Doctor and Donna
from Martha, with her trapped on the Hath side, the Doctor,
Donna and the newly named Jenny have to investigate why
this war is going on. As they make progress, the Doctor
quickly starts to see their might be something special about
Jenny.
Who’d
have thought that The Doctor would have had a daughter,
though this is no ordinary child and is she a Time Lord?
As Whovians
will already know, The Doctor had children before the Time
War but no one would have believed that he would have another
child. So whom does he have a child with? Martha? Rose?
Donna? No, he actually reproduced with a machine!
The
T.A.R.D.I.S. takes them to another world, an underground
world where war ravages between the Humans and the fish
race, the Hath. As the death toll rises, each side uses
cloning technology to produce new soldiers with combat techniques
genetically engineered into their DNA. When the Doctor is
forced to use this machine, a young woman, who Donna christens
Jenny, leaves the pod ready to step into battle.
As the
Hath attack, however, the tunnel they are in collapses and
Martha is separated from the rest of the group. The Doctor
realises that a power source runs the entire underground
complex. Naturally, this means some running themselves as
the Time Lord, Donna and Jenny head for the Source. The
more time Jenny spends with her ‘father’, the
more she wants to know about him.
Again
Russell T. Davies and his creative team have taken a fascinating
premise and intermixed a message against war. The Doctor
acts as peacemaker. Donna investigates a mysterious series
of numbers that are scattered throughout the underground
complex and Martha finds a common ground with the Human
enemy. Seeing the story from both sides and then discovering
the reason behind the conflict, the episode shows what war
can do and how it can affect everyone involved -- even the
peacemaker.
The
main emphasis of the show, of course, is the Doctor’s
daughter Jenny. Played by Georgia Moffett, the real life
daughter of former Doctor Peter Davidson, she instantly
makes a real impact on the Whovian universe. Having the
charm, energy and curiosity of her father, Jenny could be
the next Time Lord.
Catherine
Tate continues to impress as Donna and she is, against all
the odds, becoming a very good companion. It is always a
pleasure to see Freema Agyeman as Martha and David Tennant
has become one of the best Doctors to ever grace the part.
The
only real disappointment of the show is that it follows
another cloning story, the two-part adventure ‘The
Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky’ but this aside,
this is still a good show. With the introduction of The
Doctor’s daughter, this is much more that just another
Doctor Who war episode. The season just goes from
strength to strength.
